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SAV

I think all of our cows would look awesome if they lived at SAV! It appears to me that they raise their cattle in a very fake environment with a lot of additional inputs and pampering. There are a bunch of high quality cattle in my area and I have yet to see any SAV sired cattle that look even half as good as the SAV pictures or perform to the 900 pound weaning weight norm that exists at SAV. I just don't beleive that they are real-world type cattle.
 
I usually don't like to run anyones operation down but I would have to agree. Any time I see 800# plus 205 day weights you know how much creep feed they must be eating. That's when the sale catalogue gets tossed in the trash can. However after seeing their sale results, a lot of people must disagree with me.
 
I think we all know that they creep, BUT, that doesn't make them any less impressive. I don't know very many guys that can make an Angus or any other breed wean off calves over 1000 lbs, no matter how much feed they eat. It isn't what we are trying to do, but it works well for him, and the sale prices reflect it. They are very successful at what they do, and I commend them for doing it.

Put the weights to the side and look at the photos of the cows. I have seen them in person and they are good from a soundness standpoint. The udder structure is great, the feet are good, and the body shape is awesome. I have seen alot of fat cows around the country, and most of them do not look anything like these girls. Kelly does a good job at making a very uniform, sound set of cows that performs higher than most any other herd in the world. They may not fit some of your type of breeding, but they do for him, and evidently lots of others as they sell over 500 bull a year at an amazing price.
 
I honestly think that you could back the management off alot and the cattle would sell just as well. I'm sure there's some good ones there but I'm not sharp enough to see through the glitter. There are some pretty practical outfits using their genetics up here so we'll see how they shake out under northern Sask. management. The bull that has been used the most and longest up here is Final Answer and they seem to be working. It's kind of funny alot of commercial cowboys will say 'I'd buy bulls at certain places if they fed less' I haven't heard 'I wish they were just a tich fatter' well at least in my circle of compadres. I'm sure their sale will ring all the usual bells in all the usual places.
 
004 is a better bull than final answer in my opinion. Final answer calfs were all over the board for bw and ww. We had selected a FA son for a bull canidate until I did a scrotal check. The bull had a retained testicle up in side. He sure tasted good. Only have 1 final answer daughter left and she on a slippery slope to freezer beef. We have had one 004 fail to breed the 2nd time but the rest are working great under the fall winter calving scheme.
 
I was just relaying what I saw in our area-this outfit has probably had over a hundred off him-I have some SAV on our place but not enough to make a comment on them-I'm not sure if 004 was even available in Canada. Final Answer bred fairly consistent in the herd I'm talking about-his cowherd is bred pretty steady. Again it's just an observation of what I've seen up here-there have been some SAV cattle that didn't work as well but that can be said for any outfit. I'd really like to see the cattle run as just cattle and go from there.
 
I know their cattle tend to be big, but I have worked with Kelly
on advertising and I can tell you there is one fella that is on top
of things. He's great at managing his advertising and I'll be that
spills over onto his whole operation. Not many have their advertisng
ducks in a row as he does. I've always been impressed with him
and I've never met the guy.
 
Faster horses said:
I know their cattle tend to be big, but I have worked with Kelly
on advertising and I can tell you there is one fella that is on top
of things. He's great at managing his advertising and I'll be that
spills over onto his whole operation. Not many have their advertisng
ducks in a row as he does. I've always been impressed with him
and I've never met the guy.
Click to expand...

Well I met him once and I was impressed at how genuine he was. He was also helping as a ringman a day before his own sale which I thought was a nice gesture with all he had going as well.
 
Here's a question for any seedstock breeder out there, I don't care what breed it is. Unless you are in a drought condition where the bull calves aren't getting enough nutrition, why do you creep feed bull calves? Do you creep feed heifer calves too and if so why? Don't your calves get big enough on grass and milk and post weaning growth or is it more of an ego thing for bragging rights about weaning weights? This is a sincere question. I'd like your perspective. If this is a highjack question I could sure start a new thread.
 
Kelly is a gentleman, but I guess I wouldn't say otherwise if he were not. :lol: Especially in the kinder, gentler world of Ranchers.net. :gag:

Final Answer made some of the nicest bulls that I've seen at many Angus sales in my area. Reports are that his daughters are also good. With his low birth weight and the muscular phenotype that he passes on, I sure like him. Wish he had some marbling, but there is no perfect beast that walks. Select Sires has a new and interesting bull called "Regis" that is a son and out of a Coleman Angus cow sired by Connealy Onward. It will be interesting to see what he does, but he's just an unproven pup.

Just my thoughts.

:cboy:
 
I went to SAV sale once and was totally impressed. Never before have I walked into a pen of bulls and would take anyone of them home.

We have used SAV influence quite heavily and cattle seem be just like all the other angus out there except for those at the extreme other end of the spectrum( Jauer, Diamond D....). I bought some heifers bred to Final Answer and wished every calf would have been a heifer. I am keeping every daughter out of him. Not many times do you see a calf at a few days of age and say, "she is a keeper."

As for the creep it tells me what the cattle can do if you so choose to push the hell out of them. A lot of genetics don't have a ability even with all the feed they can hold.

As for using creep, one person I know that does it religiously, says he can make it pay by running way more cows than what he could w/out feeding the calves. Don't know if I agree but could really care less if a person creeps or not. I just know I wouldn't like the expense.

Howdy
 
With a major a North Amercian advertising program, good looking cattle,
rich corn farmers and places that have recientily hit oil. There will be enough people to make the sale great again this year.
 
Herbster also bought another bull at SAV lot 59 for $34,000
Wonder why he needed two at those prices.
 
Very interesting thread. Thank you to those who managed to not 'trash' the reputation, while disagreeing and giving sound reasons for it, with some practices of the outfit!!!

I have heard of some who creep feed in order to survive via more weight ='s more $$$ received for their fall sold calves. Of course, western SD is in a drought way more often than not!

mrj
 

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